Tales from Liam's childhood

When Liam was about 18 months old, he loved taking all his stuffed animals (which he called his "babies") in with him for his naps. He barely fit in his crib because there were so many of them! Each afternoon when he woke up, he would tuck every baby into the space between the wall and the crib so that their heads were poking up over the crib rail. So yesterday when Emma woke up from her nap, Liam went in to talk to her for a minute because I was in the middle of something. I could hear him talking to her through the baby monitor, but I couldn't hear what he was saying. Turns out he was showing Emma how to set up her stuffed animals just like he did. When I walked into Emma's room, Liam was beaming a big smile as he explained, "I was just telling her about my childhood!"

Some pictures from this week

Here are a few random shots from the past couple of days. Here, Liam was watching a big thunderstorm out the window. What was left of Hurricane Dolly brought some major rain to El Paso. Yippee! (Notice his handsome little face, pretty much back to normal!)
Emma only wants to play standing up these days. I think walking won't be too far off now.

The face of a little angel...my little angel. :)

And the face of a little goofball...yes, I will gladly claim her - MY little goofball! :)

A look at Liam's face as it returns back to its handsome self

Wednesday, July 23rd, 11 a.m.

Wednesday, July 23rd, 8:45 p.m.

Thursday, July 24th, 10:35 a.m.

And I didn't take one yesterday! Not like me at all! :) I'll take one later today. His swelling is all but gone and now he just needs to get rid of the boo boo on his forehead.

Thanks, Mason & Carden!!

Liam is definitely feeling much recovered, but if there is any part of him still needing cheering, this will certainly do the trick! His buddies, Mason and Carden just sent this awesome dinosaur cookie bouquet. Do they know him or what? THANK YOU GUYS! Hurry back from vacation soon. We miss you!

Do Re Mi Fa Sol and so on....

Tonight Liam and I attended the El Paso School District's summer production of The Sound of Music. (Yes, he is all better and up for adventure...what a difference a couple of days make.)
I love sharing my love of musicals with my little boy. We always have so much fun and The Sound of Music happens to be one of my all time favorites. I think I am creating a monster, though...during one musical interlude, he correctly pointed out the flute solo! ("Hey Mom, listen to that flute.") I wish I could say it was an oboe solo he noticed, but I was still impressed! He has insisted for a long time now that when he grows up, he is going to play the bass (aka, the "biggest guitar") so I thought he would be excited that the bass player was almost directly in front of us. However, from far across the orchestra pit, he noticed...(could it be?)...an even bigger instrument?? That's right. Liam is now insisting he is going to play the harp! "It's really big and it has strings and stuff!" Hey, at least it doesn't have reeds, so I'm all for it. I guess my plans of buying a large SUV to carry a bass around will have to be put aside so I can buy a...hmmm...harp transporter? If anybody knows what kind of vehicle will fit a harp in the trunk, please feel free to clue me in.

Pictures from the hospital

The pictures:

Liam just got his IV and was not amused.


But soon he was resting comfortably.


Emma didn't know what the fuss was all about.


How did Liam get lucky enough to get the giraffe room? It's one of his favorite animals, close behind dinos (of course) and elephants.




My sweet boy. He didn't fall asleep until almost 11:00 p.m.


The next morning, playing with his Transformer.


Liam named this little guy Boo Boo Bear. Thanks, Grandma & Grandpa McShea! Boo Boo bear also has a "son" named Baby Bear that Grandma Purdy sent him. Liam was so excited to get his special deliveries - which included balloons!


Look who came to visit! Hmmmm...Katherine and Thomas must have pulled some fancy moves to get past the nurses' station since technically children under 14 aren't allowed in the hospital. Liam was thrilled to see them.


Tuesday night and Dr. Prieto just gave the ok for Liam to be discharged. Now we're just waiting to go home.


Liam posing in the hallway of the pediatric floor with his balloons. Did I mention he loved the balloons?


Liam with our favorite nurse. She was with him for the overnight shift and arrived just in time the following night to see him off.


Liam at the curbside waiting for dad to bring the car around. (Notice Emma in the reflection of the one balloon. I didn't see that til I uploaded the pics on the computer...a happy accident!)

We're home

We are home, and we actually were discharged sooner than we originally thought we would be. Dr. Prieto came to check on Liam around 7:00 last night and said that he was improving and it would be ok to go home with some oral antibiotics. Which was a really good thing, because Liam's IV had fallen out and it was either oral antibiotics or reinserting the IV. Liam couldn't have been happier to get home to his own bed. As we were leaving the hospital, he said "this hospital stay was the worst time of my entire life!"
His face is still puffy, especially under his eyes, but the swelling is noticeably reduced and getting better all the time. I have been trying to take lots of head shot pictures so that I can compare them from start to finish of the infection. I will upload some picture highlights on the blog, but if you want to see more, I will be making a Shutterfly album, too. Just email me with "Subscribe to Shutterfly" in the subject line. ;) lol....

Liam is at the hospital

This is just a quick update...I am home just to take a shower and grab a few things and I thought this would be the quickest way to tell everyone how Liam is doing.

Yesterday morning, Liam's swelling on his face had gotten much worse, so I brought him immediately to the pediatrician. The antibiotic that had been prescribed to him was not working on his infection, so he needed to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics. He is resting comfortably now, although his face looks horrible. The swelling is now predominanty around his eyes. And with the board on his left hand that is supporting his IV, he says he feels like Rocky Balboa wearing a boxing glove. I don't think he realizes that he looks just like Rocky Balboa, too!

The most traumatic part was getting the IV which took three tries. Right after they finally got it in, the lab came to draw blood. I thought he was going to run right through the window...anything to get away from another needle. Poor kiddo.

The swelling has not really decreased too much yet. But it's not getting worse, which is the important part. They started him on a second antibiotic last night, so that should help, as well. He gets both antibiotics at 6 hour intervals. We expect to be in the hospital at least through tomorrow. (Wednesday)

Dr. Prieto, Liam's pediatrician, stopped by the hospital at 10:15 p.m. last night to check on him, which I thought went above and beyond the call of duty. (He had referred us to another doctor who was also caring for Liam at that point.) It put a smile on Liam's face. Liam is also very happy with his new Happy meal toy, a transformer. He cuddled with that little plastic toy all night long!

Brendan is going to work a half day today, so I need to go finish arranging Emma's babysitter's for the afternoon. I will update again as soon as I can.

Ouch!

Liam had an accidental run-in with Tinky last night. Tinky thought she was jumping for a ball, and she didn't see Liam standing in the path between her and the ball. Poor Liam got clobbered pretty good. On the bright side, he's going to have a cool scar!

*Edited because I forgot the pictures from "the incident" last night. Here are Liam and Tinky happily playing, blissly unaware of the events about to unfold!

And here is Liam, with a band aid covering his wound.

Emma's first bath in the new and improved tub

Emma took her first bath in the "real" tub tonight! She definitely liked it, but she kept trying to pull up on the side and crawl out. Lucky mom had a second set of hands as Liam was eager to help keep Emma safe and happy.

Liam's room got a mini-makeover...you'll never guess....

Surprise! Liam fell to the ground and "fainted" (not really) when he saw his new dinosuar bedding. Do you sense a theme in our house these days? I think he really may turn into a dinosaur - it's all he eats, sleeps, and breaths!

Lord, make me a dinosaur

Liam was saying his prayers last night before bed and he totally cracked me up with what came out of his mouth. His prayers are never dull, but last night was particularly memorable. (My facebook friends may have noticed this on my profile already :) )

"Dear God, please let Emma grow up to be a good girl and to have a good life. And God, please turn me into a dinosaur."

I'm not sure, but does that mean he doesn't want to grow up to be a "good boy?" Hahahaha. I couldn't stop laughing!

Emma loves swinging!

Here are some pictures from this afternoon. Emma was having a blast on the swing set, as you can see!

First, my two babies sharing a cuddle. I know I'm biased, but gosh they're cute.

The fun had to come to an end at some point.

Pretty

I don't know if this qualifies as a "trick" or not, but Emma knows exactly what her pretty hairbows are for. This video was the best I could get today. She usually has better aim, but you'll get the idea!

Wild skies

Some pictures from my drive home tonight. I promise, for the shots in the car, I was stopped at red lights, so it wasn't really too, too dangerous. (Right?) We had lots of clouds today, which made for a pretty neat sunset! This first picture is of Mount Cristo Rey. There is a cross on the peak of that tall mountain. And there are banditos in those hills (for real) so don't go wandering up there by yourself.

At the park

Liam is at summer camp again this week, so yesterday it was just Emma and me attending our Monday playgroup. She is getting to that age when she can actually get down and play. She had a really good time.



I'm not sure what Jude was feeding Emma here. Probably a poisonous leaf or something of the sort? But you can see my priority was taking the picture. Bad mommy.... Don't worry, Jill was paying attention and swatted it out of Jude's hand at the last moment.


Katherine is practicing for her baby brother who due in just a few months! She was a great mommy's helper all morning.